Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has stepped back to clarify recent controversial comments he made regarding X’s AI image generation tool, Grok, following reports that the tool was being used to create nonconsensual sexualized images of women and minors.
The controversy peaked after U.S. Senators Ben Ray Lujan, Edward Markey, and Ron Wyden intervened. The lawmakers sent a strongly worded letter to Apple and Google, demanding the removal of both the X and Grok apps from their respective app stores, citing the technology’s role in the “mass generation” of these harmful images. The senators requested a response from the tech giants by January 23rd.
Sweeney’s initial reaction to the senators’ actions was highly critical, equating the political pressure to “gatekeepers” attempting to “censor all of their political opponents.” He also argued that all major AI companies experience instances where their technology “goes off the rails” despite their best efforts. Following backlash, the Epic CEO offered a clarification, stating that his criticism was solely aimed at a government official for pressuring publicly traded companies to “block a speech app owned by their political opponent,” rather than defending or minimizing the serious nature of the images generated by Grok.